Cyclones blank ValleyCats at Joe
Published on July 17, 2010 under New York-Penn League (NYPL)
Tri-City ValleyCats News Release
TROY, NY - Returning home has not always been a good thing for the ValleyCats this season. Tri-City came back to Joe Bruno Stadium tonight and was blanked, 8-0, by the Brooklyn Cyclones. The ValleyCats fell to 6-11 at home; they are 5-6 elsewhere this season.
The Cyclones broke a scoreless tie with a two-out rally in the third inning. Shortstop Luis Nieves ripped a double down the left-field line, and star center fielder Darrell Ceciliani plated him with a single. Back-to-back doubles extended the lead to 2-0 in the fourth.
The Brooklyn pitching staff frustrated the 'Cats to the tune of four hits and only issued one walk. Tyler Burnett doubled in the first inning and reached third after drawing a free pass to lead off the seventh, but no other ValleyCats reached scoring position.
Starter A.J. Pinera was nearly unhittable. The righty allowed only two baserunners in six innings and got stronger as the game went on, fanning four of his last five batters. Pinera was incredibly efficient with his pitches, never throwing more than two balls to a batter and lasting six frames on 57 pitches.
The Cats' biggest highlight of the night came on defense. With two on and no out in the eighth, Oscar Figueroa ranged to his right to snare a line drive off the bat of Luis Nieves. Figueroa fired the ball to Kiké Hernandez at second to double off Cody Holliday, and Hernandez relayed it to first, where Juan Centeno was out by inches - a triple play.
"Tyler [Burnett] did a good job of calling for the ball, and I just reacted," Hernandez said. "I didn't know if I had a chance at the triple play or not, I was just thinking about getting rid of the ball as quickly as I could."
Aside from the triple play, the Tri-City defense had a subpar day. The ValleyCats committed three errors and let 15 balls drop in for hits.
The defensive woes culminated in the fifth inning. Tri-City committed two errors and allowed three stolen bases, while David Martinez threw a run-scoring wild pitch. ValleyCat pitchers only retired one batter, but a pair of Cyclones ran into outs on the bases.
"It's only one game, fortunately," manager Jim Pankovits said. "We need more consistency - it seems like we play a couple good games, and then a couple that aren't so good. That's not a recipe for a winning team."
Brooklyn scored two runs the defense couldn't do anything about. J.B. Brown lofted a home run over the right-field fence to lead off the sixth. With two outs in the ninth, Jeff Flagg hit a low liner that barely cleared the wall in left, adding Brooklyn's the eighth and final run.
A pair of ValleyCats saw lengthy hit streaks snapped: Hernandez (13 games) and Ben Orloff (8 games). Wilton Infante extended his to nine consecutive games with an infield single in the eighth inning.
Along with Infante and Burnett, Ben Heath and Dan Adamson were the only ValleyCats to reach base safely.
Brooklyn returns to Joe Bruno Stadium tomorrow for the second of three games. The Sunday afternoon contest begins at 5 pm. The ValleyCats (11-17) will start southpaw Tom Shirley (0-0, 0.00), while the Cyclones (19-10) counter with Mitchell Houck (3-0, 2.90).
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